Claim to Fame

Animal rescuer and activist

Biography

Peter was the product of what amounted to essentially a booty call of the natural world. Two shifters, vulpine in primary nature, met and were at just the right points to mate, and mate they did…at length and with great zeal. Unfortunately for Peter, his mother decided to sow her wild oats elsewhere, leaving the boy with his father from an early age. Fortunately they got along very well, and especially so since his father Gregory knew how special and rare a pure shifter child was, one that was able to survive from the treacherous early stages of life.

When the inevitable occurred and Peter began to shift, his father took the time and care to help him, to instruct him in what he needed to do, and took him out of school for the time being, the excuse that he had contracted mono and couldn't attend. It was enough time to get him back on his feet, and when Peter returned to school, he was a bit more confident, a bit surer of himself. The years went by, and Peter and his father lived happily in Vermont, with plenty of room for them to rove and roam, plenty to do and plenty to occupy themselves with. Like all good things, it couldn't last.

During Peter's high school years, a pack of werewolves muscled into the area in Vermont and started to shake things up, making trouble for everyone. A few of the other shifters fought them, but Gregory opted to stay out of the conflict, taking Peter to Pennsylvania, where he had some family. Until Peter's senior year, they managed to settle in and even to meet others of their kind in the area, settling into life there nicely. But again, the werewolf pack that had upset their lives in Vermont returned.

By this time, the pack had been thinned out and apparently had not been able to settle in Vermont. There was no word as to what had become of their old stomping grounds, but rather than take the risk of being discovered and possibly antagonised, Gregory took Peter south to Texas now, thinking that a sufficient distance would surely throw off the trail. Peter was disenchanted by the move and became despondent, disliking the drastically different climate and surroundings, although in time he was able to find some new friends and get into some new interests. After volunteering to help with an animal rescue shelter throughout his senior year, he and some friends found jobs there and made more new friends and connections. Gregory was proud of his son, especially for the work that he helped to promote in study and preservation of the urban fox…an issue very close to home.

When the Great Reveal happened, Gregory didn't know what to think. It was strange to him, to think that those legends were also true. When he had first changed, Peter went through great disbelief and shock, but he gradually learned to accept it; the same would be true with the Great Reveal. Although it made him initially unsettled and a bit paranoid, Peter gradually eased into belief and acceptance. After all, how different could they be? And yet it was necessary that he keep his own secrets. In a way, he almost envied the vampires, despite the discrimination that also came with increased exposure.

Peter soon made the decision to attend classes at a small college, in preparation for learning at a larger one. He graduated high school with excellent marks, and though he didn't distinguish himself particularly otherwise, he was generally well-liked. Taking just a few classes at a time to accommodate his life, he takes things one day at a time. In this world, which he's found to be much crazier than he could ever have anticipated, it doesn't pay to rely on planning too far in the future.

Character Details

Peter is a little bit of a challenge for most to get to know. Some see him as flighty, others see him as sly. He's playful and can be very fun, but he's also terribly impulsive. He also often goes with his intuition, sometimes reluctant to give a new person a chance because his gut feeling about them is bad. He can be persuaded to come around, but his dependence upon instinct can be difficult to overcome.

Most people are kept at arm's length, in part because he takes his family's secrets seriously, in part because he still feels unstable after moving residence so much. Although he has local friends and acquaintances, he has difficulty depending on them and still feels flighty, nervous that they will have to leave again to avoid the problematic pack. His friendships and relationships rarely run very deep, which is why he has experienced no steady intimate relationships in the area and finds it hard to maintain friendships with people he doesn't see regularly at school or during his volunteer work.

He has a temper, but he is more prone to removing himself from an objectionable situation than he is dwelling in it and trying to bash his way through it. He'd rather see a novel or clever approach to a problem than simply to solve it by beating at it…foxes are all about cleverness, after all. Obstacles are more often regarded as a challenge or an opportunity, and this approach has earned him positive attention at the rescue shelter and in his classes.

Despite the rest, Peter can be resentful towards authority figures, especially ones that haven't earned his respect. At times he may even go out of his way to undermine their authority, and with his usual cleverness it tends to mean a truly humiliating situation for whomever may have garnered his irritation. Sometimes he can be spiteful merely because he wishes to challenge a perceived authority, other times he will be more subtle. He dislikes being made to do anything, and even if the situation is exactly the same, if he is invited to do something and left to make the choice, he will be more likely to comply.

Shifting

Peter can shift at any time, being a pure shifter by birth. His primary affinity is that of the fox, specifically the red fox, common to a vast range of climates in the world, especially the continent of North America. He is able to adopt other forms, although it is rare that he ever does, and it requires visual establishment for him to be able to do so. While in the form of a fox, he has amazing fox powers such as being incredibly cute, having a fluffy tail, and making adorable sounds, amongst others.

Medic

Peter has basic medical knowledge for both humans and a variety of animals, and he knows how to render serviceable first aid due to his experience with the shelter and as an animal activist. Even though it's not the best in the world, patching up those he can may save lives.

Survival

Peter can survive in the wild extremely well, even when he's not in animal form. Although plenty of knowledge crosses over between his time as an animal and his time as a human, he has also taken the time to do book learning about other survival topics. He enjoys camping, hiking, and other outdoors activities, and he is justifiably confident at his ability to be all right in most any situation that could come up.

Cleverness

Peter is very clever and can approach many potential problems in a novel or imaginative way. This enables him to get past certain situations with elan, or at least to avoid a situation getting much worse than it should be.

Fighting

But if push comes to shove, he's also able to fight. He's learned quite a lot from his animal time, so he's no stranger to scratching and biting if it comes down to that. Most of the time though, he's a brawler who can take some good hits and give as good as he gets.

Doubt

A lingering doubt always dwells at the edge of Peter's thoughts: will they have to move again? Will he ever really be able to call any place home? Because of this, it affects his ability to trust and to feel familiar with people. It's not impossible by any means for him to establish friendships and relationships, it just takes more effort on the other person's part than would be necessary with an average person.

Werewolves

A stray pack of rabble-rousers plagued Vermont and then, later, Pennsylvania, causing Peter and his father to move rather than to confront them or to challenge their authority. Although the pack are unquestionably obnoxious, they are nonetheless werewolves, and so some of their own kind may defend or support them. The constant worry that this will happen, that they will somehow find those who avoided them before, occupies the minds of Gregory and Peter both. It has made Peter reluctant to trust werewolves, and has even made him slightly fearful of them and reluctant to be around them.

Marking

Peter has a thing with marking territory. Ironically, he handles it better in fox form than he does in human form, but then it's more permissible as an animal; in human form, occasionally he'll get the strong urge to mark his territory as his own. Fortunately he's had years to learn to control it. But that doesn't mean it doesn't nag at his mind sometimes. He can't disguise it, he likes his own scent and it makes him more comfortable. Of course he knows it's not strictly legal in most places of human settlement, but then that's part of the thrill of being able to say 'this place is miiiiiine!' So to speak.

Authority

Peter just doesn't like authority in general. He is not difficult to persuade to do things, but it's all in the approach: if someone tries to assert authority over him that Peter doesn't respect, he's more likely to be motivated to find a way to circumvent or undermine that authority. Most organisations, especially ones full of bureaucracy, are, in his mind, all the more suspicious and untrustworthy because of it. This makes him also less willing to cooperate with known authoritarians and big, well-to-do groups than with smaller, more 'grass roots' type groups.

Nocturnal

It's not a huge issue, but Peter is simply more comfortable during the night. He's more skittish during daylight, and he also takes a lot to wake up during that time. Most of his classwork is online, to accommodate this and also allow him to do the volunteer work he might want during the afternoons. Most nights, Peter is wide awake until he can't resist his pillow's call any longer.

Small

The fox is not the largest animal in the world. In fact, foxes tend to be rather small, by comparison to wolves, bears, et cetera. He's not going to overpower anyone with sheer brute force anytime soon; in fact, his greatest asset is speed, sleekness, and the ability to extricate himself from potentially treacherous situations, so he's at a marked disadvantage when the situation calls for something different.

Open Book

Peter is especially easy to read for most psychics. The flipside of the coin is that he tends to be difficult to interpret because of his impulsive masses and rushes of thoughts and feelings. It's also easy to get lost in the vivid ripples of his thought-imagery, as he is possibly over one hundred percent alive. During the day it is harder to get a rewarding focus on his thought flow, simply because he's so skittish and overstimulated. At night, his mind changes to a more keenly-honed instrument, and it is vastly easier to understand his more streamlined impulses. Some adjustment to his mental workings is necessary, but they're not hard to reach out and read.